GoKawiilTL;DR Hugging Face has unveiled a $400 bipedal robot called Microduck.
The duck-shaped robot features 15 motors, a camera, a depth sensor, and an articulated beak that can pick up objects.
Microduck comes with learned behaviors and can be controlled with a gamepad, but developers can also teach it new skills through reinforcement learning, simulation, and open-source software.
AI has earned an overwhelmingly negative perception over the last couple of years. At this point, is there any way for the technology to shed that stigma and become more approachable to the general public? One of the best attempts at that may be Hugging Face’s new tiny duck-like robot.
Hugging Face has unveiled a cute bipedal robot known as Microduck. The robot is about 10 inches tall and features 15 motors, a camera, a depth sensor, two inertial measurement units (IMU), and an articulated beak that can pick up objects. According to the company, the duck character was born as a result of the robot’s proportions, beak, and waddling gait.
It can perform a variety of actions and behaviors out of the box, like walking, sitting, crouching, and even skating. You can also control Microduck with a gamepad, have it follow a laser dot, and let it interact with its surroundings. Hugging Face says that it wanted to create a product that anyone could start using right away.
However, Microduck doubles as a development platform, allowing developers to take things even further. It features an open-source software stack so you can teach it new skills and behaviors through reinforcement learning, simulation, or programming new code. The main Microduck repository is available starting today, and the Microduck RL contains the reinforcement learning and simulation tools.
Microduck happens to be the second robot the company has launched. The first was Reachy Mini, a desktop set robot meant to be a platform for building conversational AI, experimenting with vision models, and creating human-robot interactions. Unlike Reachy Mini, Hugging Face says Microduck was designed not to be taken too seriously. As an extension of this sentiment, Microduck is available in more colors than Reachy Mini.
Microduck is available for pre-order starting today for $399 on the company’s website. You’ll be able to choose from four colorways: Cream, Graphite, Lavender, and Sky. If you live in North America, the UK, or Europe, the first deliveries are expected to arrive before this Christmas.
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